Chronology - Cecilia de Torres

JOAQUÍN TORRES-GARCÍA
1874 - 1949
Key events and activities of the life and artistic path of Joaquín Torres-García (JTG) are summarized in this
chronology, which encompasses his works, exhibitions, writings, and life events. Other aspects of his career, such as
the lectures he gave in Montevideo after his return in 1934, as well as the activities of the Asociación de Arte
Constructivo (AAC) and the Taller Torres-García (TTG) are documented in the 1992 exhibition catalogue, El Taller
Torres-García: The School of the South and Its Legacy (UT Press).
Only select artworks, exhibitions, and writings by the artist are featured in this chronology. For more complete
information, please browse the catalogue, exhibition, and literature sections of the online catalogue raisonné at
www.torresgarcia.com.
The facts in the chronology have been gathered from a wide variety of sources and have been checked against the
archives of the Museo Torres-García and those of Cecilia de Torres. There exist in the public sphere numerous
inaccuracies that have been previously published; this chronology has sought to correct those errors.
1874-1890
July 28, 1874: Joaquín Torres-García (JTG) is born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Joaquín Torres Fradera, an immigrant
from Mataró (a city in the region of Catalonia, Spain), and María García Pérez, the daughter of Spanish parents. A
brother, Gaspar, and a sister, Inés, are born in 1875 and 1890,
respectively.
Torres Fradera owns a general store in Montevideo that occupies a
large warehouse alongside stables, a bar, and a carpentry shop, where
JTG first experiments with constructing in wood. He also enjoys opening
and assembling the boxes of imported goods, such as sewing
machines, furniture and tractors. In spite of Uruguayan law regarding
compulsory education, JTG leaves school to study at home by himself
1880 view of Montevideo
with his mother.
Although Uruguay experiences great economic growth during these
years, it also suffers internal strife, conflict with bordering countries, and recessions in 1875 and 1890 that reverse Torres
Fradera's business.
1891
Tired of the economic uncertainty in Uruguay, Joaquín Torres Fradera returns with his family to Spain, settling in Mataró,
his native village. JTG is struck by the handmade objects and traditional customs so different from what he knew in
Uruguay.
JTG receives his first formal art training, studying drawing and painting with Josep Vinardell (1851-1918) at the local Arts
and Crafts School, Escola Municipal d’Arts i Oficis (Municipal School of Arts and Crafts).
1892
JTG’s family settles in Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonia region, where JTG attends night courses at the Escola
Oficial de Belles Artes, La Llotja. His fellow students there are Ricard Canals, Joaquim Mir, Isidre Nonell, and Joaquim
Sunyer. He also takes art courses at Academia Baixas during the day.
Catalonia experiences a rise of nationalism and aspirations for autonomy. Catalan as a
literary language and traditional music are revived. A confederation of Catalanists,
including politician Enric Prat de la Riba (1870–1917) and architect Josep Piug i
Cadafalch (1867–1957; also a native of Mataró) establish the Lliga de Catalunya
(Catalan League) and the Unió Catalanista (Catalan Union).
1893–95
JTG joins the newly formed Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc, where he meets poet Eduardo
Marquina (1878–1946), art historian Josep Pijoan (1880–1963), writers Luis de Zulueta
JTG (right) with his mother (left)
and his father who holds his
sister, Inés, c. 1893-94
(1878–1964) and Pedro Moles, and the musician A. Ribera, who introduces him to
Richard Wagner’s music. JTG attends lectures by Catholic priest Josep Torras i Bages
(1846–1916), who asserts that the artist’s task is to seek redemption through
obedience to God and promotes the search for faith and balance in nature’s harmony.
Inspired by Torras i Bages, JTG studies Greek literature and philosophy, including Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,
Immanuel Kant, and Arthur Schopenhauer.
JTG travels to Madrid to see the Museo Nacional del Prado, where he meets the artist, Julio González.
February: Painters Raimon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, and sculptor Enric Clarasó exhibit at Sala Parés, Barcelona; their
style, similar to Art Nouveau, becomes known as the Modernista school, associated by conservatives with fin-de-siècle
decadence.
Exhibitions
1894: JTG participates as a Uruguayan in the foreign section of “Segona
Exposició General de Belles Artes i Indústries Artístiques” (Second
General Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries), Barcelona.
1896
December: Sala Parés, Barcelona, presents an influential exhibition of
French Art Nouveau posters by, among others, Alfons Mucha, Theophile
Left: JTG, center: Eduardo Marquina, right: Josep
Pijoan; JTG at the academy in Barcelona, c. 189394
Steinlen, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, which are a revelation for JTG.
Exhibitions
Spring: “Tercera Exposició General de Belles Arts i Indústries Artístiques” (Third General
Exhibition of Fine Arts and Artistic Industries). As in the previous year, JTG participates as a
Uruguayan in the foreign section. He receives an honorable mention for an advertising
poster in watercolor.
1897
JTG frequents the café Els Quatre Gats with artists including the González brothers, Picasso,
the composer Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), Miquel Utrillo (1862–1934), and the writer Eugenio
D’Ors (1881–1954). He joins El Cenacle, a group of artists and writers who gather at Julio
JTG poster for El Gato
Negro, 1896, 33 x 22 in.
83,8 x 55,8 cm.
Gonzalez’s workshop.
Works
JTG designs posters, among them a poster for the magazine El Gato Negro. He works as a book illustrator and designs
magazine covers.
Exhibitions
January 5: JTG’s first solo exhibition, in the Saló de la Vanguardia, Barcelona, an exhibition gallery in the office building
of the newspaper La Vanguardia.
March 5: Group exhibition at Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc. Raimon Casellas in La Vanguardia praises JTG’s “elegant
charcoal portraits and color drawings.”
1898–1900
JTG travels to Madrid with artist Pau Roig (1879-1955), where he is struck by the work of El Greco, Tintoretto, Titian, and
Paolo Veronese at the Prado museum.
JTG discovers the work of the French neoclassical painter and muralist Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, who had recently
died. For JTG, Puvis’s work, rooted in the Mediterranean tradition, represents a more authentic painting style for Catalonia
than the Impressionism and Art Nouveau that inspired the Modernistas.
Picasso leaves Barcelona for Paris after first exhibition at Els Quatre Gats. Julio Gonzalez and
his family also leave Barcelona and settle in Paris.
Works
Besides creating charcoal drawings in the style of Toulouse Lautrec, JTG draws buildings and
urban landscapes exploring the structural and tectonic qualities of architecture, which will
reemerge in his later works in wood and his paintings.
JTG Buildings, 1898.
Charcoal on paper, 13⅛
x 12½ in. 33,5 x 32 cm.
Exhibitions
1900: JTG’s second solo exhibition at Saló de la Vanguardia, Barcelona.
1901–03
1901: JTG teaches drawing and painting privately to the sisters Carolina and Manolita
Piña. He marries the latter in 1909.
July 1901: Miguel Utrillo publishes “Joaquín Torres-García Decorator,” Pèl I Ploma.
Reproduced on the cover is Font de joventut, c.1901 (1901.09).
1903: JTG works with architect Antoni Gaudí on Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia Catedral,
Barcelona.
Works
JTG paints in a classical Mediterranean style inspired by Puvis de Chavannes.
Exhibitions
1901: Solo exhibition, Sala Parés, Barcelona.
Writings
“Impressions.” Pèl i Ploma (Barcelona), July 1901.
JTG in Gaudi’s studio at
JTG in Gaudi’s studio at
the Sagrada Familia, 1903
1904–06
1904: JTG works with Gaudí on the restoration of La Seu, Palma, Mallorca’s cathedral, for which JTG designs four
stained-glass windows (Stained glass from Palma de Mallorca Cathedral, c.1903 (1903.05).) using glass of various
thicknesses in primary colors to achieve the desired tone and brightness, a method devised by Gaudí.
D’Ors—writing for the weekly El Poble Catalá (The Catalan People) under the pseudonym Octavi de Romeu—remarks on
JTG’s aptitude for large mural decorations.
April 13, 1904: JTG's father dies.
Works
1906: JTG obtains his first mural commission: ten canvases for the home of Baron de Rialp in San Gervasi, Barcelona,
depicting scenes of country life (now in the Collection Centro de Arte Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid).
Exhibitions
1905: Group exhibition, Sala Parés, Barcelona.
Writings
“Angusta et Augusta.” Universitat Catalana (Barcelona), no. 5 (May 1904): 71-72.
1907–08
JTG joins the faculty of the Mont d’Or, a school founded in 1905 by J. Palau i Vera that was rooted in the progressive
Montessori educational method. There he teaches arts and crafts to children aged seven to twelve. JTG studies pedagogy
and psychology.
The Barcelona Municipality presents the Fifth International Art Exhibition featuring works by Édouard Manet, Claude
Monet, James Ensor (1860-1949), Giacomo Balla, and Francis Picabia, and three preparatory boards for the murals by
Puvis de Chavannes for the Paris Panthéon.
Works
JTG works on several mural commissions: Mural for the Capilla
del Santíssim Sacrament de l'església de Sant Agustí, 1907
(1907.03a), Barcelona (destroyed in fire, 1936); l’església de la
Divina Pastora (Church of the Holy Shepherdess), Sarrià (painted
over, 1910); Sala de la Comissió d'Hisenda, Ajuntament de
Barcelona, 1908 (1908.01a) (destroyed, 1910).
Writings
“Una nova artista” (A new artist), Feminal, no. 2.
“La nostra ordinació i el nostre camí” (Our order, our path).
JTG teaching at Mont D’Or, Barcelona, 1907
Empori (Barcelona), no. 4 (April 1907): 188-91.
“El dibuix educatiu a Mont d’Or” (Educational drawing at Mont
d’Or). La Illustració Catalana (Barcelona), 5, no. 236 (December 8, 1907).
“El literat i l’artista” (The man of letters and the artist). Empori, no. 12 (June 1908): 216-17.
1909–10
JTG travels to Tarragona, Spain, to see the Roman ruins.
February 22, 1909: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto “Le futurisme à Paris” is published in Le Figaro; it is
translated to Catalan and published in El Poble Catalá on March 9.
August 20, 1909: JTG marries Manolita Piña and moves to Sant Gervasi in the outskirts of Barcelona.
November 1909: JTG and Manolita travel to Brussels, where JTG is commissioned to paint two panels illustrating
agriculture and cattle raising for the Uruguayan pavilion at the Brussels Universal Exposition.
February 1910: On their way back to Barcelona, JTG and Manolita stop in Paris to see Puvis de Chavannes’s murals at
the Panthéon. They also visit Julio González and Pau Roig.
November 1910: The couple settles in Vilassar de Mar, a small town by the sea thirty kilometers outside Barcelona.
Exhibitions
October 1910: Solo exhibition, Faianç Catalá, Barcelona with landscapes of Brussels, Antwerp, and Paris.
1911
April 5: Daughter Olimpia is born.
July: JTG is nominated by d’Ors, and others, to decorate the Saló de Sant Jordi in
the Palau de la Generalitat, a palace dating from the fifteenth to seventeenth century
that houses Barcelona’s Congress. D’Ors promotes JTG as representing the
Noucentista aesthetic. The term Noucentista, coined by d’Ors in 1906, means “of the
twentieth century.” Its goal is the affirmation of Catalan nationalism.
D’Ors publishes the Almanac dels noucentistes with works by Josep Aragay, Ricard
Canals, Joan Clará, Pablo Gargallo, Joaquim Mir, Xavier Nogués, Isidre Nonell,
Picasso, Pijoan, Ismael Smith, Pere Torné, and JTG.
October: JTG and his family move to Sarriá, a suburb of Barcelona.
Works
JTG completes a large panel painting, Filosofia presentada por Palas Atenea en el
Parnaso como la Décima Musa), c.1911 (1911.09) that he donates to the Institut
Manolita and JTG, Barcelona, 1909
d'Estudis Catalanas in Barcelona. The painting follows an an earlier work of the
same subject created three years earlier La Filosofia presentada por Palas en el
Parnaso (Filosofia Xa Musa), c.1908 (1908.03) that the artist gifted to d'Ors.
Exhibitions
June: Group exhibition, “Exposición Internacional de Arte,” organized by the Barcelona Municipality.
Writings
“El ideal artístico” (The artistic ideal). Cataluña (Barcelona), January 7, № 170-171(special issue).
1912
February: D’Ors publishes “Pel Cubisme a l’estructuralisme” in La Veu de Catalunya, in which he proposes a relationship
between Cubism and the Noucentista aesthetic. The article sparks a debate that leads to the organizing of “Exposición de
Arte Cubista” by the Galeries Dalmau, Barcelona; opening in April, the exhibition includes works by Marcel Duchamp and
Juan Gris, among others.
JTG studies primitive art and folk traditions, and reads the book Los comienzos del arte (The Origins of Art) by Ernst
Grosse published in Barcelona in Spanish in 1906 (after Die Anfänge der Kunst, Freiburg: Leipzig, 1894).
April-August 23: JTG is commissioned to decorate the Saló de St. Jordi. To prepare, he travels to Italy (Pisa, Florence,
Rome) to see early Roman and Renaissance fresco painting. He stops in Saint-Cergue, Switzerland, where he completes
sketches for the Diputació de Barcelona (Barcelona Provincial Council) murals.
September: JTG and his family settle in Can Bogunyá, near Terrassa, where the Mont d’Or School is now established.
The school’s new director is Pere Moles, JTG’s friend and brother-in-law. JTG teaches drawing and crafts.
Exhibitions
January: Solo exhibition of drawings and paintings in classical themes at the Galeries Dalmau, Barcelona. Catalogue text
by Eugenio d’Ors names JTG as the ideal Noucentista painter.
Writings
“Consideracions al voltant del cubisme i de l’estructuralisme pictòric” (Considerations regarding Cubism and pictorial
structuralism). La Veu de Catalunya (Barcelona), February 22.
1913
June 19: Son Augusto is born.
September: JTG creates the Escola de Decoració in Sarriá, with workshops aimed at promoting a Catalan-Mediterranean
aesthetic through fresco painting, etching, sculpture, ceramics, and weaving.
October: Public viewing of JTG’s first mural at the Saló de Sant Jordi, which provokes both negative and positive reviews.
JTG ends his relationship with d’Ors because he feels that the critic failed to support his work.
November: Joseph Roca i Roca, art critic for the newspaper La Actualidad, publishes several negative articles about the
Sant Jordi murals. Nevertheless, Prat de la Riba ensures that JTG continues to work on the project.
Works
July 28-September: JTG paints the first fresco mural at the Saló de Sant Jordi: La Catalunya Eterna, 1913 (1913.02).
Writings
“Dues notes més” (Two more notes), La Veu de Catalunya, October 16.
Notes sobre Art (Notes about art), Gerona: Rafael Masó.
1914
January: The sixth issue of Les Tendences Nouvelles, Paris, includes reproductions of JTG’s work.
July: JTG purchases land at Can Colomer, outside Barcelona, and builds a house he called Mon Repós, which he
decorates with frescoes. Although some were lost, four were removed in 1993 and are now in the collection of
the Fundación Cultural de la Caixa de Terrassa.
August: The Mont d’Or School closes.
Works
JTG begins painting Mediterranean pastoral themes in frescolike texture. He surrounds the works with architectural-style
frames with columns and pediments made from rough, whitewashed wood, his first use of wood elements in conjunction
with painting.
JTG’s painting is influenced by the simplicity of country life.
Writings
Excerpts from Notes sobre art (1913) in Revista de la Escola de Decoració (Barcelona) (March): 1-5, 10, 27 (only issue).
1915
The Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923) visits JTG at the Saló de Sant Jordi to
express his support.
December 12: Daughter Ifigenia is born.
Works
Completes and installs two stained-glass windows at the Gothic Room of the Sala del
Consell (Council Room) in the Generalitat (now lost): Stained glass windows for the
Gothic Room of the Sala del Consell, Palau de la Generalitat, 1915 (1915.18)
September: Completes the second Sant Jordi mural: La Edad de Oro de la Humanidad,
1915 (1915.01).
Writings
JTG, woodcut print announcing
JTG’s new address at Mon Repos,
1915
Diàlegs. Terrassa: Tipografia Mulleras.
“De la influencia de l’art mediterrani en els paisos medionals” (On the influence of
Meditarranean art on southern countries). Recull de Treballs de la Escola de Decoració, Barcelona, 3-6.
“Sobre les exposicions i les revistes de arte” (On exhibitions and art reviews). Recull de Treballs, 18-21.
“Crónica de Arte Catalán del Siglo XX” (Chronicle of twentieth-century Catalan art). La Publicidad (Barcelona).
“Dario de Regoyos,” text for “Dario de Regoyos” exhibition at Galeries Dalmau.
1916
December: JTG is introduced to the work of foreign artists
living in Barcelona temporarily during the war. Albert Gleizes
(1881-1953), Sonia (1885-1979) and Robert Delaunay (18851941), and Marie Laurencin (1885-1956) show their work at
Galeries Dalmau.
JTG and Family at Mon Repós in 1916
Works
August-September: JTG completes the third and fourth Sant Jordi murals: Las Artes, 1916 (1916.17) and Lo temporal
no es mes que simbol, 1916 (1916.18); the latter is the most controversial.
October: JTG starts murals on the façade and interior of the home of local businessman Emilio Badiella in Terrassa.
Writings
Vell i Nou (Barcelona), 2, no. 31 (August 15).
Un ensayo de clasicismo: La orientación conveniente al arte de
los países del mediodía (An essay about classicism: The suitable
orientation for meridional countries). Terrassa: Tipografia
Mulleras.
“Les noves idees estètiques d’En Torres-García”(Torres-García’s
new aesthetic ideas).
La mula. Oil on canvas, 12½ x 19⅛ in. 32 x 49 cm.
1917
January: Picabia launches the Dadaist magazine 391 in Galeries Dalmau (four issues total between January and March).
April: JTG meets Parisian art dealer Ambroise Vollard, who is in Barcelona for an exhibition of French art at the Palau de
Belles Artes. JTG takes him to see the murals at the Saló de Sant Jordi.
June: JTG sees the ballet Parade by the Ballet Russes at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, with music by French
composer Eric Satie, costumes by Picasso, and scenery by Jean Cocteau.
August: Uruguayan painter Rafael Barradas (1890-1929) visits JTG with Catalan poet J.
Salvat Papasseit (1894-1924). Barradas is sixteen years younger than Torres-García. He
moved to Italy in 1913, where he became familiar with the Futurist movement. Barradas and
JTG develop a close friendship during the year and a half they are in Barcelona together. Their
shared interest in the dynamic modern urban life leads them to develop Vibracionismo
(Vibrationism), a painting style JTG describes as a simultaneity of visual stimuli translated to
the canvas in color combinations or vibrations.
JTG’s supporter in the Barcelona city government, Prat de la Riba, dies. His successor,
Barradas, 1917
architect J. Puig i Cadafalch, cancels JTG’s contract to complete more murals.
November: JTG moves to Sarriá, where he meets his neighbor Cebria de Montoliu (1873-
1923), a lawyer, urban planner, poet, and translator to Catalan of English literature. Montoliu, who moves to New York in
1920, is an important influence on JTG, introducing him to the poetry of Walt Whitman.
December 10: La Publicidad announces that JTG’s four frescoes at the Saló de Sant Jordi will be covered by tapestries.
Works
JTG designs first wood toys, among them: vehicles, consisting of wheels on an axle, a chassis, a hood, and different
bodies that can be put together as a car, a truck, or a bus; a locomotive in seventeen pieces; horse carts; and a
hobbyhorse.
JTG paints the urban scene as an organized superposition of fragments of elements, such as buildings, signs, vehicles,
trains, figures, telephone wires, letters, and numbers.
JTG completes the sketches for La Catalunya Industrial (Industrial Catalunya), the fifth mural for the Saló de Sant Jordi,
which he never paints.
June: In his illustration for Un Enemic del Poble, JTG divides the picture plane and places an image in each
compartment, a style he would develop further in the 1920s in paintings on canvas and wood that would constitute the
foundation of his Constructive Universalism.
Exhibitions
February: Solo exhibition, Galeries Dalmau, Barcelona. At the opening, JTG reads a lecture about his new direction in
art.
December: Undaunted by the indifference toward his new paintings and the controversy over his Sant Jordi murals, JTG
simultaneously opens three exhibitions in Barcelona: at Galeríes Laietanes, Salón de La Publicidad, and Galeries
Dalmau, the last with Rafael Barradas. He shows a total of one hundred works.
Writings
“El arte de nuestro tiempo” (The art of our century). La Publicidad, March.
“Consells als artistes” (My advice to artists). Un Enemic del Poble: Fulla de subversio espiritual (Barcelona) (March).
“Conferencia a Can Dalmau” (A lecture at Dalmau), La Veu de Catalunya, March 19, and April 16.
“En digué tot aixó” (All I have said). La Revista (Barcelona), 3, no. 37, April 16.
“Notas de arte: Clasicismo Moderno” (Notes on art: Modern classicism). Semanario España (Barcelona), no. 117, April
19.
“L’exposició d’art francés” (The exhibition of French art). La Revista, 3, no. 42 (June 16): 233‒37.
“D’altra orbita” (In another orbit). Un Enemic del Poble, June.
“Crónica de arte: ante una emigración posible” (An art chronicle: Considering a possible emigration). La Publicidad, July
31
“Art Evolució (a manera de manifest)” (Art evolution [a manifesto]). Un Enemic
del Poble, no. 8, November.
“Los artistas uruguayos en Europa, Rafael Barradas” (Uruguayan artists in
Europe: Rafael Barradas). El Siglo
(Montevideo), November 24.
"Un ballet Rus de Picasso:Parade" La Revista (December 1).
“Notes d’art.” Vell i Nou 3, no. 56 (December 1): 653-55. “Evolucionismo.” La
Publicidad, December 12.
“Algunas notas sobre la decoración de las casas” (Notes on house
decoration). Salón Reig (Barcelona).
El descubrimiento de si mismo: Cartas a Julio que tratan de cosas muy
importantes para los artistas (The discovery of oneself: Letters to Julio about
issues of importance for artists). Gerona: Rafael Maso.
“Sobre la personalidad” (On personality), La Vanguardia.
JTG La Catalunya industrial. 1917,
watercolor and ink, 59 x 38 in. 151 x 97,5
cm.
JTG drawing in the June issue of Un Enemic del
Poble, Ink, 4¾ x 7 in. 12 x 17,8 cm.
JTG cover for El descubrimiento de si mismo,
1917, ink on paper, 7 x 3 in. 17,8 x 9,8 cm.
1918
February: Joan Miró’s first solo exhibition at Galeries Dalmau.
May: Disappointed with the art establishment, JTG joins a group of young artists that call themselves Agrupació Courbet
(Courbet Group). The group disbands a year later when several members leave for Paris. They briefly regroup as Els
Especulatius (Speculators); members include Picasso and Miró.
Works
November: JTG partners with the manufacturer Francisco Rambla to make wood toys.
Exhibitions
Group exhibition “Exposició Collectiva de l'Agrupació Courbet” at Palau de Belles Arts, Sala Sant Lluc, Barcelona.
December: “Joguines d’Art” (Art Toys) exhibition at Galeries
Dalmau; catalogue text by Torres-García.
Writings
“Evolucionismo.” La Publicidad, January 2.
“Evolucionismo.” La Publicidad, February 2.
“Evolucionismo.” La Publicidad, February 19.
Car toys and parts, 1918, oil on wood
“Evolucionismo.” La Publicidad, March 14.
“Art-Evolució” (Art-evolution) Arc-Voltaic, no. 1, February.
“La critica d’art i els artistes” (Art criticism and artists). Vell i Nou, no. 65 (April 15): 154.
“El públic i les noves tendències d’art” (The public and new art tendencies). Vell i Nou 4, no. 67 (May 15).
“Plasticisme” Un Enemic del Poble, June.
“Notes d’ art” (Notes on art). El Día (Terrassa), no. 104, July 19.
“Natura i Art” (Nature and art). Un Enemic del Poble, October.
“Devem Caminar” ([They] should advance). Un Enemic del Poble, November.
“Art Evolució.” Un Enemic del Poble, November.
1919
January: The young painters Enric Ricart (1893-1960) and Joan Miró visit JTG in his studio.
Photographs of JTG’s toys are published in Vell i Nou, no. 82 (January 1): 13.
May 3: JTG writes a letter to Barradas explaining that he has to postpone his plan to move to New York.
June: JTG presents a stand with his toys in the Sixth Exposition of Toys and Household Articles at the Universidad
Industrial Barcelona. For the occasion he publishes an illustrated toy catalogue: Francisco Rambla, Toy
Manufacture (Barcelona: Imprenta Rubí, 1919).
August: JTG lectures at Universidad Industrial about teaching art to children, and shows drawings by students at the
Mont d’Or, which he would keep all his life.
Mexican muralist David A. Siqueiros meets JTG and Barradas in Barcelona. They
plan the publication of the magazine Vida Americana, The first and only issue is
released in May 1921. In August, Barradas moves to Madrid.
November: JTG’s friend the Spanish-born painter Rafael Sala (1891-1927) leaves for
New York.
Exhibitions
May 30–June 30: Salón de Primavera, Barcelona. JTG includes drawings for the
murals he could not complete and eleven paintings.
December: Galeries Laietanes, Barcelona.
Writings
L’art en relació amb l´home etern i l’home que passa (Art in relation to the man who
is eternal and the man who is finite). Sitges, Spain: Eco de Sitges.
JTG Composición vibracionista,
1918, oil on board, 19 x 13¾ in.
50 x 35 cm.
“Jo” (I). L’Instant, 2, no. 5, October 15.
Regeneració de sí Mateix (Regeneration of oneself). Barcelona: Salvat-Papasseit.
“Dialegs d’Art” (Art dialogues). L’Instant, October 15.
“Hechos” (Facts), unpublished; excerpts published in Un Enemic del Poble, no. 17 (March): 1.
1920
JTG studies English. His former neighbor, Montoliu, writes him from South Carolina, encouraging
him to come to America to develop the toy business.
April: In New York, artist and avant-garde patron Katherine S. Drier, Marcel Duchamp, and Man
Ray found the Société Anonyme, the first space devoted to contemporary art in the United States.
May: A dinner is held in JTG’s honor on the occasion of his departure to New York. En route the
family takes a train to Paris, where he is met by Miró, visits Picasso and Vollard, and travels to
Brussels to see Argentinean writer Roberto Payró and Belgian painter Degouve de Nuncques
(1867-1935).
Barcelona - NY, Hechos
June 16: JTG and family arrive in New York. They are met by Cebriá de Montoliu, who introduces him to American
painter and author Walter Pach (1883-1958), one of the organizers of the first Armory Show. JTG rents Pach’s apartment
and through him meets the painter Charles Logasa (1883-1936), who introduces him to the Society of Independent Artists
and the painter James Daugherty (1887-1974).
Works
In his paintings he is weaving city images and words into a pictorial structure, a scaffolding of vertical and horizontal lines;
these works anticipate his constructivist style.
Writings
“Fets” (Events). Noucents, no. 3, supplement of El Dia,
Terrasa, July 17.
“Apunts sobre Nova York” (New York notes). La Publicidad,
July 30.
“New York.” La Publicidad, September 4.
“New York, los Artistas” (New York artists). La Publicidad,
October 2.
New York City: Bird's Eye View, 1920, watercolor and
ink on paper, 13¼ x 19⅛ in. 33,8 x 48,5 cm.
1921
January: Katherine Dreier and her sister, Dorothea, purchase
three works from 1920: the paintings New York City: Bird's Eye View and New York Docks, and a collage, New York
Street Scene, for the Société Anonyme (now in Yale University Art Gallery).
February: JTG meets artists Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Stella.
March: Louis Bouché, director of the Folsom Galleries, arranges for JTG to meet Juliana Force,
director of the Whitney Studio Club. There JTG meets John Graham and the composer Edgar
Varèse (a friend of Julio González); the three will later get together in Paris. JTG meets
American and international artists John Xcéron, Morris Kantor, Abraham Walkowitz, and Max
Weber.
Stella, a founder of the Society of Independent Artists, invites JTG to the Society’s yearly
costume ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. JTG wears white canvas overalls painted with a maplike
overview of New York in black, green, and red. The costume received notice in the March 12
issue of The New York Times.
May: JTG founds the Artists’ Toy Makers Company in association with Dover Farms Industries
and files a patent for the Go-Pony, a hobby horse with a mechanism that advanced it forward as
it rocked, which is granted in August 1922.
June: JTG moves Uptown to 522 West 161st Street.
JTG in painted overalls,
1921
Works
JTG paints a portrait of artist Joseph Stella, 1921 (1921.08).
May: Inspired by America’s Popular Culture, JTG resumes designing toys, such as Funny People, a set of toys inspired
by the cartoon characters Mutt and Jeff, painted in bright, unmixed enamel paint.
Cover Vida
Americana, May
1921
Two pages of the NY sketchbook,
1921
Poster advertising
the Go-Pony
Exhibitions
February: Group exhibition, “Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists,” The Waldorf-Astoria, New
York.
April 16–May 15: JTG sends Business Town, (1920.03), Spanish Town (unidentified), Fourteenth Street (1920.09) (no.
44 in the catalogue) and Fashion (unidentified; no. 84 in the catalogue), to “Later Tendencies in Art” at the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts Exhibition, Philadelphia.
April 25–May 2: Group exhibition with Stuart Davis and Stanislaw Szukalski, Whitney Studio Club, New York. Both Davis
and JTG exhibit works featuring imagery from advertising and labels of brand-name products. The exhibition is reviewed
by Hamilton Easter Field, New York Times, May 1, and David Lloyd, “Notes on Some Current Art Exhibitions,” New
Evening Post, April 30.
May: Force exhibits JTG’s didactic toy prototypes at the Whitney Studio Club in an effort to help him find a company to
manufacture and distribute the toys.
Writings
“Sobre la personalitat i l’obra d’En Nicolas Roerich” (On the work and personality of Nicolas Roerich). Catalonia (New
York), February, no. 1.
“El pintor J. Torres-García habla de su arte y de sus proyectos” (The painter Torres-García talks about his art and his
plans). Unsigned interview, La Prensa (New York), March 10.
“Rafael Sala: Pintor.” La Prensa, New York. April 13.
May: JTG completes the manuscript “New York” [Montevideo: HUM/Museo Torres García, 2007; prologue by Juan Fló].
1922
May: JTG visits sculptor, collector, and founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in
her studio in New York.
July 17: JTG and family sail from New York to Tuscany, where Torres believes it will be less expensive to produce his
wooden toys.
August 1: The Torres family arrives in Genoa.
August-September: JTG spends the month in Genoa, where he reunites with Charles Logasa. Both are attracted to
Genoa’s architecture. JTG would later describe it as, “Poor constructions, large wall surfaces, angles, geometric rhythms,
contrasts of color that matched what himself and Logasa were painting then.” (JTG, Historia de mi vida [Montevideo: AAC,
1939], 220).
September: They travel to Pisa, Cascina, and Florence before settling in October in Fiesole.
La Nazione di Firenze reports almost daily of struggles between Communists and Fascists.
December: JTG sells toys to a store in Florence.
Works
Makes toy samples with a local carpenter.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibition, Hanfstaengel Gallery, New York.
1923
JTG works exclusively on the design and manufacture of toys. He meets Henri Bueno de
Mesquita (1887-1962), a Dutch artist living in Florence, with whom he partners to
JTG and family in Fiesole,
1923
distribute toys in Europe and America. Although he travels often to Florence, he does
not engage with the contemporary art scene, which is gravely affected by violence
between Fascists and Communists.
February: JTG ships toy samples to the Whitney Studio Club, where they are exhibited.
Exhibitions
April–May: Group exhibition, “Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture,” Whitney Studio Club, New York.
1924
February: JTG and John Agell establish the Aladdin Toy Company at 20 Wooster Street in New York.
April: The Torres-García family moves to Livorno, Italy, in search of a better manufacturer to produce the toys.
July 26: Son Horacio Torres is born.
December: JTG moves to Villefranche-sur-Mer in the South of France after visiting his friend Charles Logasa who lives
there.
Works
February: JTG and John Agell publish a catalogue in which JTG illustrates each set of
toys and the multiple combinations that can be made with the parts. JTG also designs the
Aladdin Toys catalogue, 1924
stationary and the slogan: “Aladdin Toys are artistic Toys.” With Bueno de Mesquita, he
starts selling toys to Metz & Co. in Amsterdam and Selfridge’s in London.
JTG makes the first abstract maderas; he continues to explore Cubism in
painting.
1925
February: A fire destroys the warehouse on Wooster St. where the Aladdin
Toy Company was located. The entire inventory is lost.JTG sells his toys to
Nouvelles Galleries Riviera, Bazar Populaire, and Bazar République in Nice.
December: The Metz & Co., Amsterdam, catalogue features JTG’s toys.
JTG in his studio in Villefranche, 1925
Works
Influenced by his Mediterranean surroundings, JTG returns to the classical style, painting easel frescoes.
1926
February: JTG visits Spanish writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867-1928) in Menton in the South of France.
March: Art historian J. F. Ràfols writes the first illustrated monograph about the artist. It is published the following year
as Joaquín Torres-García (Barcelona: Edicions Quatre Coses, 1927).
JTG corresponds with Spanish painter Pedro Daura (1896-1976), a friend of Logasa’s living in Paris, who helps JTG find
a gallery in Paris. In May, Daura visits JTG in Villefranche.
In spite of the protests by influential artists and
intellectuals, JTG’s Saló de Sant Jordi murals are
covered with canvases by Catalan academic painters.
July 27-August 4: JTG visits Barcelona for the last time.
He takes no action in connection with the covering over
of his frescoes.
September 19: JTG arrives in Paris with his family and
temporarily shares a studio with the painter Jean Hélion
(1904-1987).
November 25: JTG builds and paints a banister on the
stairs going to his studio in his new home and studio at 3,
rue Marcel Sembat in Paris.
JTG, Manolita, and their children in Jean Helion's studio, Paris, c. 1926-27
Works
JTG completes an ink and watercolor sketchbook of Villefranche-sur-Mer and draws first structures with symbols within
each compartment, a further development of the drawings of the same idea from 1917.
About his classical-inspired painting, JTG writes that although he will always return to classicism, it isn’t what he is
currently doing or what he wants to do, because such art can no longer reflect reality [JTG to Pere Corominas, December
26, 1926. Pilar García-Sedas, ed. Joaquím Torres-García: Epistolari català, 1909-1936 (Barcelona: Curial/Publicaciones
de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 1997), 108].
Exhibitions
June: Solo exhibition, Galerie Dalmau, Barcelona.
June: First solo exhibition in Paris, at Galerie Fabre.
October: "Saló de Tardor" at the Sala Parés, Barcelona, Spain.
October 16–November 6: Group exhibition, “Exposició de Modernisme Pictoric Catalá
confrontada amb una selecció d’obres d’artistes d’avantguarda extrangers” (Exhibition of
Catalan Modernism Confronted by a Selection of Works by Foreign Artists), Galeries
Dalmau, Barcelona.
Untitled, 1926, ink on paper, 3⅜
x 3¾ in. 8,6 x 9,5 cm.
Writings
“Torres-García parla de les pintures de la Diputació de Barcelona” (Torres-García talks about the paintings in Barcelona’s
municipality). Revista de Catalunya 4, no. 20 (February 22): 212.
JTG sends a series of articles titled “El Saló de tardor D’Enguany” (Today’s fall salon) about the art scene in Paris to La
Publicitat, November 13 and December 2, 21, 29, and 30.
1927
August 3: JTG, friends, and family work full time to complete an order of toys from the
Au Printemps department store in Paris.
JTG places an ad for the “Jouets Transformables Aladdin” in the December issue of the
magazine L’Acte, no. 2.
American painter John Xceron (1890-1967), whom JTG had befriended in New York,
arrives in Paris.
Works
In reaction to the Fauve style of the School of Paris painters, JTG paints portraits, still
Invitation to JTG's exhibition
at Galerie Fabre, 1927
lives, and urban scenes with heavy impasto and dark, deep colors. He makes a series of
ink drawings of commercial products inspired by advertising, in which he juxtaposes
letters and images. He also makes wood figures and assemblages inspired by primitive
art.
Exhibitions
May 16: Group exhibition, Galerie Montparnasse, Paris.
June 16: Solo exhibition, Galerie Carmine, Paris. Catalogue with text by Joseph Milbauer.
Writings
“L’Esclave et l’homme libre” (The slave and the free man). L’Acte (Paris), no. 2 (December).
“Mon Cher Moi.” July, unpublished.
1928
JTG and his son Horacio attend a performance of the Circus by Alexander Calder
(Cirque Calder, 1926-31, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York).
May-June: JTG visits “Les Arts anciens de l’Amérique” at the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris, a major exhibition of pre-Columbian art in
Europe featuring more than one thousand works.
June JTG signs a contract with Atelier Coll, Paris, to manufacture toys.
Hélion introduces JTG to the art dealer G. Bhyne, who subsequently sells JTG’s
work.
September: JTG and fellow artists Hélion, Daura, Alfred Aberdam (1894-1963) and
Engel Rozier (1885-1965) are rejected by the Salon d’Automne. In protest, they
present their rejected work at the “Salon de Refusés: 5 Peintres Refusés par le Jury
du Salon d’Automne” (Five Painters Rejected by the Salon d’Automne Jury) at
JTG in his Paris studio, 1928
Galerie Marck in November, coinciding with the opening of the official Salon. It draws
large crowds and attracts the attention of the press.
JTG meets Dutch De Stijl painter Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) at the “Salon de Refusés.” The two artists begin a
correspondence that continues until van Doesburg’s death in 1931.
JTG attends an exhibition of German De Stijl painter Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899-1962), where he meets
Belgian critic and writer Michel Seuphor (1901-1993) and Belgian artist Georges Vantongerloo (1886-1965).
JTG meets the Uruguayan painter Pedro Figari (1861-1938) and the French Uruguayan poet Jules Supervielle.
Works
In one of his most prolific years, JTG records his aesthetic and religious ideas in ideographic illustrated manuscripts. In
another stylistic shift, JTG paints urban landscapes made up of planes of color overlapped by a rhythmic drawing that
defines the objects.
Exhibitions
November 3–25: Group exhibition, “Salon de Refusés: 5 Peintres Refusés par le
Jury du Salon d’Automne” (Five Painters Rejected by the Salon d’Automne Jury),
Galerie Marck, Paris.
December: Solo exhibition, Sala Badrinas, Barcelona.
December 1–7: Solo exhibition, Galerie Zak, Paris. Catalogue with foreword by
Waldemar George.
Writings
Entries dated 1928 are unpublished unless otherwise noted.
“L’homme triangle” (Man triangle).
“Décadence et Primitivisme" (Decadence and Primitivism), February 9.
“Ici à Paris” (Here in Paris).
Invitation to the "5 Refuses"
exhibition, Galerie Marck, 1928
“L’idée centre de l’homme” (Idea is central to man).
“Ҫa Va!”
“L’inédit" (The unprecedented).
“Je sais ou je vais” (I know where I am going).
“Par telephone” (By telephone).
“La Peinture Vierge” (New painting).
“À la Même Place” (In the same place).
“C’est l’Homme qui Compte” (It is Man that Counts).
“Mise au Point” (Clarification).
“Polarité” (Polarity).
“Actes.” Joia (Barcelona), 1, no. 2 (April): 28-30.
1929
Collaborates with the Polish poet Jean Brzekowski to publish the magazine Art Contemporain. The launch of the first
issue takes place at Galerie Zak. JTG donates a painting (subsequently destroyed during World War II) to create a
collection for the Lódź Museum, Poland.
April: Seuphor introduces JTG to the Dutch De Stijl painter Piet Mondrian.
May 13: Van Doesburg writes “Le planisme de Torres García,” which is later published in Montevideo as “El Planismo de
Torres-García,” Removedor: Revista del Taller Torres García, no. 16 (January-February 1947).
July: JTG and painter Luis Fernández (1900-1973) visit artists Amédée Ozenfant (1886-1966) and Constantin Brancusi
(1876-1957).
August: Augusto Torres works at the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro, Paris, copying and cataloguing Nazca
ceramics.
Collector Katherine Dreier visits JTG in Paris and acquires Docks, 1929 (1929.56); he gives her a number of his drawings
of the Independent Artists Ball in New York in 1921. [Dreier’s works are now in the Société Anonyme collection, Yale
University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut].
September: JTG attends weekly meetings at Seuphor’s studio in Vanves, with artists Vantongerloo, Hans (Jean) Arp
(1886-1966), Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943), and Mondrian. They form the group Circle et Carré (Circle and Square) to
counter Surrealism’s increasing popularity and influence.
November: Van Doesburg publishes “Fransche Schilderkunst,” De GroeneAmsterdammer, no. 2739, about the evolution
of modern art in France, establishing a parallel between Czech painter Frank Kupka (1871-1957) and JTG in their former
orientations in figuration and classicism.
Representatives of Cercle et Carré, including JTG, sign a contract with Galerie 23 to present an international exhibition of
art and architecture based on geometric abstraction. JTG visits Dalí’s first exhibition at Galerie Camille Goemans; it
encourages him to defend abstraction.
December JTG lectures to a group of friends about his experiences in the United States; he reads excerpts from his “New
York” manuscript.
Members of Cercle et Carre at Michel
Seuphor's House, 1929
Works
JTG paints several compositions in the Neo-Plasticist style. He also consolidates his definitive “Constructive Universalism”
system of symbols within a structure.
JTG creates a Stand design, 1929 (1929.107) for the manufacturing firm of Benito Badrinas for the industrial fair in
Barcelona.
Exhibitions
Group exhibition, “Exposition Selecte d’Art Contemporain" (E.S.A.C.), organized by
Théo and Petro van Doesburg for Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
July 13–August 2: Group exhibition with John Graham, Kakabadzé, Sollento,
Tutundjian, Andréas Walser, Zéro, Otto Freundlich, Vantongerloo, “Exposition D’Art
Abstrait” (Exhibition of Abstract Art), Éditions Bonaparte, Paris.
October 25–November 25: “Salon des Surindépendants,” Paris.
Group exhibition, “Abstrakte und Surrealistische Malerei und Plastik” (Abstract and
Surreal Paintings and Sculpture), Kunsthaus Zürich.
October 31–November 15: Group exhibition, “Exposició d’Art Modern Nacional i
Estranger” (Exhibition of Modern Art, National and Foreign), Galeries Dalmau,
Barcelona. Catalogue with foreword by M. A. Cassanyes.
Writings
“Père Creixams.” La Gaceta de les Arts, May, p. 122.
“Père Daura.” La Veu de Catalunya, June 27.
Stand designed by JTG for Barcelona's
Industrial Fair, 1929
“Hans Arp.” La Veu de Catalunya, July 19.
“El Veritable Ambient de París: Una conversa amb Léonce Rosenberg” (A conversation with Léonce Rosenberg). La Veu
de Catalunya, August 13 & 15.
“Ursprung und Entbindung des Kubismus.” (Origin and Development of Cubism) Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, no. 2016
(October 20): 7.
“El veritable ambient de Paris: Amadeu Ozenfant." La Veu de Catalunya, November 21.
1930
As the effects of the Great Depression are felt in Paris, JTG sells no paintings. Instead, he writes articles to make money.
January. JTG meets with artist Joseph Stella (1877-1946) in Paris.
April 15: Publication of the second issue of Cercle et Carré includes reproductions of four works by JTG: Bouteille et
Verre (Bottle and Glass), 1927, and Masque en Profil (Mask in Profile), 1929 (private collection) and two untitled
constructive paintings from 1929.
Artists including Hélion and van Doesburg launch Art Concret as a counterpart to Cercle et Carré.
JTG reunites with Picasso and Julio González.
JTG meets collector A. E. Gallatin and painters George L. K. Morris (1905-1975), and John Ferren (1905-1970).
June-August: The Torres-García family stays with the painter Otto van Rees (1884-1957) and his family in Switzerland.
They visit an artists’ commune, Monte Veritá. JTG sells toys in Bern, Zurich, Lugano, and Basel.
September 5: JTG meets with Seuphor in Switzerland where they discuss the direction of Circle et Carré. The two
disagree, and JTG distances himself from the Cercle et Carré group.
Opening of the first exhibition of the
Circle et Carre group, Paris, 1930
Group of Latin-American artists
Exhibition of Latin-American artists in
Paris, 1930
Exhibitions
April 11–24: Group exhibition, “Première Exposition du groupe Latino-Américain de Paris” (First Group Exhibition of
Latin-American Artists in Paris), Galerie Zak, Paris.
April 18–May 1: Group exhibition organized by JTG and Michel Seuphor, “Primière Exposition Internationale du groupe
Cercle et Carré” (First International Exhibition of the Cercle et Carré Group), Galerie 23, Paris.
December: Group exhibition, Salle d’Art Castelucho Diana, Paris.
Writings
“Foi” (Faith), January 5, unpublished.
“Una conversa amb Georges Braque” (A Conversation with Georges Braque). Mirador(Barcelona) 2, no. 56 56 (February
20): 7
“Vouloir construire” (A will to construct). Cercle et Carré (Paris), no. 1 (March 15).
“Theo van Doesburg” La Veu de Catalunya, Barcelona April 11 and 30.
“Conversa amb Waldemar George” (A Conversation with Waldemar George). Mirador,no. 77 (July 17): 7.
“L’orientació que deu prende la pintura” (The orientation painting has to take). Mirador,no. 85 (September 11).
“Pintors d’ Ascona” (Ascona painters). Mirador, no. 87 (September 25): 7.
“El pintor Gilberto Bellini” El Imparcial (Montevideo), November 8.
“Dessins d’enfants”(Children’s drawings). Style, Recherche sur la morphologie
comparée des arts (Paris), no. 1 (1930-31).
1931
Van Doesburg dies in Switzerland. JTG’s exhibition at Galerie Jeanne Bucher receives
highly favorable reviews. Artists Max Ernst, Pedro Figari, Otto Freundlich, Joan Miró,
Mondrian, Vantongerloo, and van Rees, attend the opening.
A class at Academie Ozenfant,
Paris, 1932
Works
This was a seminal year in the concretion of JTG’s Constructive Universal idiom, which combined the abstract Neo-Plastic
grid with pictographic symbols. In many wood constructions he experiments with including
texture and relief. Some wood figures have incised, painted, or superimposed grids.
Exhibitions
January 30–February 14: Solo exhibition, “Peintures de Torres-García,” Galerie Jeanne
Bucher, Paris.
June 26–July 9: Group exhibition, Casa de Catalunya, Galerie Billiet, Paris.
October 14–31: Group exhibition, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris.
November 30–December 12: Solo exhibition, Galerie Percier, Paris.
December: Solo exhibition, Librairie Oliviero, Paris.
Solo exhibition, Galerie Jean Charpentier, Paris.
December 19, 1931–January 9, 1932: “Exposició Collectiva de pintura i escultura” (Group Exhibition of Painting and
Sculpture), Sala Badrinas, Barcelona.
Writings
“Père Soleil,” signed July 29 [Montevideo: Fundación Torres García, 1974].
“Reflexions sobre Arquitectura”(Thoughts on architecture). Mirador 3, no. 134 (July 27).
"Au clair de la lune: Poemes by Pierre Birrot," April, hand-lettered with drawings, unpublished.
“Lipchitz le sculpteur cosmogonique," in Lipchitz and the Avant-Garde: from Paris to New York (exhibition catalogue).
Champaign, IL: Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001.
"Structures," album of cutout images (no text), unpublished.
1932
April: Gallatin purchases Composition, 1929; Street, 1930; Head, 1930; and Construction, 1931, the first sculpture in his
collection, from JTG in his studio. [All are now in the A. E. Gallatin Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art].
September: As the economy worsens, JTG is unable to earn a living as an artist in Paris.
October JTG travels to Madrid with Fernández seeking a teaching position.
Guillermo de Torre publishes “La pintura de Torres-García” in the first issue of the Madrid magazine Arte.
December: The Torres-García family moves to Madrid. The decision to leave Paris is very difficult.
Exhibitions
June 27–July 10: Group exhibition, Galerie Zak, Paris.
March: Solo exhibition, Galerie Pierre, Paris.
October: Group exhibition, Salon de Surindépendants, Paris.
Writings
“Nôtre Boussole de Navigateur dans la Vie,” unpublished.
“Raison et Nature” [Paris: Editions Iman, 1951 (first edition)][Montevideo:Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura, 1974 (second
edition)][Montevideo: Fundacion Torres-Garcia, 1981 (third edition)]
“Del Esoterismo en el Arte,” unpublished.
“A t’il la foi?,” unpublished.
1933
JTG studies Iberian and pre-Columbian art at the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in
Madrid.
JTG lectures at the Escuela de Ceramica (School of Ceramics), the Ateneo
(Athenaeum), the Instituto Escuela, the Lyceum Club, the Salón de Otoño, the Ateneo
Teosófico (Theosophical Atheneum), and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San
Francisco (Royal Academy of Arts) where he meets Spanish poet Frederico García
Lorca, who attended the lecture. Realizing how under recognized Juan Gris’s (1887–
JTG in his retrospective exhibition
at Museo de Arte Moderno,
Madrid, 1933
1927) work is in Madrid, JTG tries unsuccessfully to organize an exhibition in his
honor.
March 23: Eduardo Marquina lectures about Torres-García at the Residencia de Señoritas in Madrid.
Summer: JTG creates the Grupo de Arte Constructivo, that includes the following artists: Benjamín Palencia (Albacete
1894-Madrid 1980); Maruja Mallo (1909- 1995); Luis Castellanos (1915-1946); Alberto Sanchez (1895-1962); Eduardo
Díaz Yepes (1909-1978); José Moreno Villa (1887-1955); Antonio Rodríguez Luna (1910-1985); Francisco Mateos (18941976); and Manuel Angeles Ortíz, (Jaén 1895-París 1984).
Works
Inspired by Indo-American ceramics and textiles, JTG paints a series of works in which images and structure are
interlaced by a continuous flowing line.
Exhibitions
Included in the ongoing exhibition "Gallery of Living Art" (collection of A. E. Gallatin), New York University.
March: Retrospective solo exhibition, Museo de Arte Moderno Madrid, relocated one week later to Sociedad de artistas
ibéricos (Society of Iberian Artists), Madrid.
May 24–June 11: Solo exhibition, “La obra pictórica de Joaquín Torres-García,” Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc, Barcelona.
October: Group exhibition, “Grupo de Arte Constructivo,” Salón de Otoño, Madrid.
Writings
“Guiones” (1, 2, and 3). Brochures. Madrid.
“El mito del hombre abstracto,” unpublished.
“Arte Constructivo,” unpublished.
1934
February: JTG visits the Uruguayan consulate in Madrid, where he meets two
Uruguayans, poet Armando Vasseur (1978-1969) and writer Eduardo Dieste (1881-1954),
who encourage him to return to his native country.
"Arte constructivo," 1933,
Unpublished Manuscript
April 14: JTG and his family embark from Cádiz for Montevideo on the steamship Cabo
San Antonio.Two weeks later they arrive in Montevideo after the artist's absence of forty-three years. Various
personalities from the artistic world in Montevideo meet them in the harbor, including the sculptor Zorrilla de San Martín
(1909-1987) and María V. de Muller (1881-1946), president of the Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo. The day he
arrives, JTG visits the family of Barradas, who had died in 1929.
JTG continues corresponding with friends in Paris, including Julio González, Mondrian, Seuphor, van Rees, Pierre Daura,
and Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973).
April: The Chilean magazine Vital, directed by poet Vicente Huidobro, pays tribute to JTG.
May 1: JTG lectures for the first time in the Central Hall of the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, in the series
“Arte y Cultura Popular.”
JTG rents a house on the street Isla de Flores, Montevideo. Uruguayan artists visit his studio, where they discuss the idea
of forming a group of abstract artists.
June: JTG starts a series of lectures at the Escuela Taller Artes Plásticas (ETAP), Montevideo.
The June-July issue of Movimiento includes an article by Uruguayan artist Norberto Berdía (1900-1983) accusing JTG of
making art in the service of capitalism and being indifferent to the struggle of the proletariat. JTG responds in print in
his Manifesto I.
July 14: JTG delivers the lecture “Mito del hombre abstracto” (Myth of Abstract Man), which causes a strong reaction in
the art community.
August: JTG founds Estudio 1037, an exhibition space in a rented building at Calle Uruguay 1037. There he organizes a
series of exhibitions of painting and sculpture including works by both Uruguayan and European artists.
September: JTG lectures about Barradas on the occasion of the second exhibition of Estudio 1037.
October 8: JTG is made a professor in the Facultad de Arquitectura (School of Architecture) at the Universidad de la
Republica, Montevideo.
JTG, center, and his family at the harbor upon their arrival in
Montevideo, April 1934
JTG, second from right, his son Augusto behind him, and
Uruguayan intellectuals at the opening of JTG's first
retrospective exhibition in Uruguay, at amigos del arte,
Montevideo, 1934
Exhibitions
June 5: Solo exhibition, Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo.
July: Two-person exhibition with his son, Augusto Torres, Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (YMCA), Montevideo.
Writings
Manifesto I: Contestando a N.B. de la C.T.I.U. Montevideo: Estudio 1037, September.
“Los seudos valores en el arte moderno.” La Nación (Buenos Aires), September 30.
“Los seudos valores en el arte moderno.” Pro-Revista de Arte (Santiago de Chile), no. 2 (November).
Historia de mi vida. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo. Published 1939.
1935
January: JTG founds the Asociación de Arte Constructivo (AAC). Rosa Acle (1916-1990), Julián Alvarez Marques,
Carmelo de Arzadun (1888-1968), Víctor Bachetta, Zoma Baitler (1908-1994), María Cañizas, Andrés Feldman, Amalia
Nieto (1907-2003), Héctor Ragni (1897-1952), Lía Rivas, and Augusto Torres (1913-1993) are founding members.
April: JTG meets Uruguayan architects E. Leborgne (1906-1986), Luis Fresnedo Siri (1903-1975), Florio Parpagnolli, and
the engineer Eladio Dieste (1917-2000), all of whom are influenced by the artist’s ideas.
May 30: JTG gives the talk “De la libertad y el academicismo en la enseñanza del arte” (Freedom and Academicism in Art
Teaching) at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Montevideo.
August: JTG becomes contributor and editor of the weekly cultural page for the Montevideo newspaper El Pueblo, until
1936.
JTG is included in a portfolio of prints (Essais, no. 43) published in Paris by Anatole Jakovski (Editions G.
Orobitz). Essais featured works by modern artists such as Arp, Hélion, Calder, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Fernand
Léger (1881-1955), Miró, Picasso, Ozenfant, Lipchitz, and Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968).
Estructura, 1935, oil on board,
23⅜ x 19½ in. 60 x 50 cm.
JTG's cover for his book
Estructura, 1935
Works
JTG paints a series of black and white structures without symbols in which the elements are shaded to suggest a shallow
relief. Here he experiments with inserting geometric shapes to the orthogonal plan of the painting.
Exhibitions
May 30: Group exhibition of works by members of Asociación de Arte Constructivo,Museo Municipal de de Bellas Artes
Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo
Writings
Estructura. Montevideo: Alfar.
“Mensaje para los amigos de Chile.” In Salón de Agosto, exh. cat. Santiago de Chile.
El camino hacia el Arte Universal. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo, January.
“Piet Mondrian.” La Nación, June.
“Valores de tradición y de evolución.” El Pueblo (Montevideo), August 18.
“Conceptos de arte.” El Pueblo, August 26.
“Notas de viaje.” El Pueblo, August 26.
“Libertad y disciplina.” El Pueblo, September 1.
“Notas de viaje, impresiones de Nueva York.” El Pueblo, September 1.
1936
March: The Facultad de Arquitectura (School of Architecture) approves a program of bimonthly talks to be given by JTG
on a variety of modern art themes.
March 4: Daughter Olimpia Torres and son-in-law Eduardo Díaz Yepes leave for Spain. JTG won’t see them again until
1948, when Olimpia and her husband and two children return to Montevideo from Europe.
April: JTG gives a lecture on Lipchitz at the Centro Israelita, Montevideo.
May: The first issue of the AAC’s magazine Círculo y Cuadrado, a continuation of the Parisian Cercle et Carré, is
published Montevideo with texts translated to and from Spanish and French.
JTG travels to Argentina to lecture about Lipchitz at the Hebrew Society, Buenos Aires.
August: The second issue of Círculo y Cuadrado salutes magazines of the world
that champion abstract art, such as Axis in England, II Milione in Italy, Pro in
Chile, Gaceta de Arte in Spain, and Thèse, Antithèse, Synthèse, and Cahiers
d’Art in France.
December 2: JTG receives a letter from Julio González congratulating him on his
work and that of fellow Uruguayan abstractionists exhibited at the Salon des
Surindépendants.
JTG begins broadcasting lectures through several radio stations in Montevideo. In
Newspaper photograph of the closing
of JTG's solo exhibition at the YMCA,
Montevideo, October, 1936
several paintings he writes “TSF” (Télecomunications sans fil), which translates as
“wireless”.
Exhibitions
October 18: Solo exhibition, Asociación Cristiana de Jóvenes (YMCA), Montevideo
October 21: Group exhibition of works by members of Asociación de Arte Constructivo, “Salon des Surindépendants de
Paris.”
November 11: Group exhibition and benefit sale to raise money for Spanish intellectuals
persecuted by the Franco regime, Ateneo, Montevideo.
Included in ongoing exhibition “Museum of Living Art” (collection of A. E. Gallatin), New York
University.
Writings
“Amedée Ozenfant.” La Nación, January.
“Edouard Manet, padre del Impresionismo.” Uruguay. April.
“De la tradición Andina-Arte Precolombiano.” Círculo y Cuadrado (Montevideo), no. 1 (May).
“El escultor Jacques Lipchitz.” Tribuna Cultural Montevideo, no. 3 (May): 24.
“Una conversación con Léonce Rosenberg.” La Nación, April.
“El plano en que deseamos situarnos.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 2 (August).
JTG's Upside down map
of South America
published in Circulo y
Cuadrado, No. 1, 1936
“Palabras de Torres-García.” Tribuna Cultural Montevideo, nos. 5-6 (August): 5-6.
1937
January–February: JTG actively corresponds with Jacques Lipchitz and Julio González and receives a card from
Mondrian.
April 28: JTG attends a lecture at Amigos del Arte in Montevideo by Maruja Mallo (1902-1995), a Spanish Surrealist artist
who met JTG in Madrid; she was a member of the Grupo de Arte Constructivo who had recently settled in Buenos Aires to
escape the Franco regime in Spain.
August 25: At JTG’s home, Uruguayan writer Francisco Espínola (1901-1973) reads “La fuga en el espejo" one of his
famous short stories influenced by Surrealism.
Works
November: JTG completes Monumento cósmico, 1937 (1937.43), a wall of
pink granite with symbols carved on individual blocks crowned by sphere,
a
a cube, and a pyramid.
JTG begins a series of monochrome paintings in tempera. He studies the
religion, anthropology and history of pre-Columbian civilizations and
introduces motifs taken from Indo-American
nto his painting, featuring
art i
symbols such as suns, snakes, llamas, Mayan pyramids, and condors, and
words such as “Indoamérica,” “Andes,” an
written in his invented
d “Arte,”
alphabet.
Writings
“Razón y naturaleza.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 4 (May).
“El arte naturalista y el arte geométrico.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 5
(September).
“Diálogo con un visitante a mi exposición.” El Plata, November 2.
“Valorización.” El Plata, December 9.
JTG lecturing during a radio broadcast, c. 1937
1938
JTG lectures at the Facultad de Arquitectura during the year.
August 5: JTG attends the play "Bodas de sangre" (Blood Wedding) by Federico García Lorca, featuring the actress and
theater director Margarita Xirgu (1888-1969), a Spanish exile living in Montevideo.
July 24: In his diary, JTG notes the deaths of painter Pedro Figari and writer Carlos Reyles (1868-1938), whom JTG had
probably met when Reyles was a director of radio broadcasting in Montevideo.
Writings
“La tradition impersonnelle.” Volontés (Paris), no. 7 (January).
“Théo Van Doesburg.” La Nación, February.
“Aquí en Montevideo.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 6 (March).
“La Tradition Impersonelle.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 6 (March).
“L’esperit d’una raça.” Ressorgiment (Buenos Aires) 23, no. 285 (August).
“La tradición constructiva de América.” Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 7 (September).
Orientación y concepto de nuestra cultura” (Orientation & concept of our culture).Círculo y Cuadrado, no. 7 (September).
“El arte de Alfaro Siqueiros.” Alfar 16, no. 78 (October).
“Artistas Israelitas en Paris.” Tribuna Cultural Montevideo, no. 11 (December): 17.
Manifesto II: Constructivo 100%. Leaflet. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo, December.
La tradición del Hombre Abstracto: Doctrina constructivista. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
Sixth issue (March 1938) of Circulo y
Cuadrado, Illustrating Cosmic
Monument, 1937
Forma abstracta en espiral (Spiral
abstact form), 1938, tempera on
board, 32 x 18 in. 81 x 47,6 cm.
1939
JTG meets the Uruguayan writer Juan Carlos Onetti (1909-1994), who had returned to Montevideo from Buenos Aires to
work as the editor of the highly regarded weekly journal, Marcha (through 1942). Onetti frequently visits JTG to discuss
publication of JTG’s articles in Marcha.
March 22: The AAC joins the Congreso Interamericano de Indianistas (Inter-American Congress of Indian Studies),
organized by the Bolivian government in La Paz.
March 28: JTG writes in his diary, "Madrid fell. The war in Spain is over." Throughout the war years he noted events
related to the war, as well as the views of his wife and children.
December 17: JTG writes in his diary that the German warship Admiral Graf Spee was sunk in Montevideo's harbor.
Works
JTG begins a series of portraits of famous men including Socrates, 1945 (1945.01), Mozart, 1946 (1946.31), Cabeza de
R. Wagner, 1940 (1940.20), J. S. Bach, 1939 (1939.29), etc.) based on known portraits or self-portraits. He also paints N.
Chamberlain, 1939 (1939.20), Stalin, 1939 (1939.37), and Adolfo Hitler, 1940 (1940.14) as monsters, and creates
portraits inspired by ordinary people. JTG distorts the features of his subjects by arranging them in a proportion
determined by the golden section in an underlying grid.
Writings
Historia de mi Vida. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
“Hans Arp.” La Nación, May 28.
“Torres-García en la soledad luminosa y fecunda de su vida.” Interview with Juan
Carlos Onetti, Marcha, no. 1 (June 23): 3.
“Torres-García habla de la exposición que no visitó.” Interview with Juan Carlos
Onetti,Marcha, no.12 (September 22): 2.
“Conversando de pintura.” Interview with Juan Carlos Onetti, Marcha, no. 17 (October
13).
“Torres-García escribe especialmente para Excelsior.” Excelsior. October 15.
“Torres-García juzga a Chapelain Midy.” Marcha, no. 23 (November 24).
Manifesto III.III Leaflet. Montevideo: Asociacion de Arte Constructivo, December.
“La pintura en 1939: Regreso a la academia.” Marcha, no. 28 (December 30).
Rafael, 1940
Oil on cardboard, 21¼ x
12½ in. 54 x 32,5 cm
“Torres-García hace el balance del año.” Marcha, no. 28 (D (ecember 30).
“Metafísica de la prehistoria indoamericana.” Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
1940
February: The Argentineans Emilio Pettoruti (1892-1971), a painter, and Jorge Romero Brest (1905-1989), an art critic,
visit JTG in Montevideo.
April 16: Salón Municipal de Bellas Artes del Subte (underground exhibition space of the Municipal Fine Arts Salon),
Montevideo, presents a traveling exhibition of French painting from French museums touring South America during the
war.
November 12: JTG gives his five-hundredth conference at the exhibition of the Federación de Estudiantes Plásticos de
Uruguay (FEPU) in the Salón Municipal de Bellas Artes del Subte. JTG expresses his frustration over the difficulty of
introducing Constructivist art in Uruguay. The lecture is edited and published by the Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
JTG, left, and architect Carlos
Herrera Mac Lean, Montevideo,
1940
Formas con hombre abstracto (Forms and
abstract man), 1940,
Oil on board, 19 x 27 in. 48,3 x 68,6 cm.
Exhibitions
November 26: Solo exhibition, Sociedad de Arquitectos del Uruguay, Montevideo.
Writings
“Zoma Baitler Impresionista” El Debate (Montevideo), February.
“Pettoruti, el ‘Pioneer’ de la Nueva Plástica.” El Debate, February 11.
“Las artes plásticas y su relación con la arquitectura.” Marcha, no. 40 (March 29).
“La reciente exposición de arquitectura en el Municipio.” Marcha, no. 41 (April 5).
“La pintura contemporánea 1.” Marcha, no. 43 (April 19).
“Pintura Contemporánea 2.” Marcha, no. 44 (April 26).
“Pintura Contemporánea 3.” Marcha, no. 46 (May 10).
“Nuestro Arte: Qué puede augurarse para su porvenir”. Marcha, no. 52 (June 21).
“Puede Gastarse de lo propio y de lo adquirido.” Marcha, no. 53 (June 28).
“La forma imitativa y la forma plástica.” Marcha, no. 58 (August 2).
“La decoración mural.” Marcha, no. 60 (August 16).
Cover of La ciudad sin nombre
(The city without a name), 1941
“Mi testamento artístico” (La idea clásica de lo histórico y lo cósmico). Marcha, (August).
“En memoria de Angélica Lussich.” El Plata, October 4.
“La pintura Contemporánea a partir de Cézanne.” Revista Nacional 3, no. 35 (November): 177.
“Unidad en la pintura.” El Plata, November 28.
1941
JTG is named honorary professor of art by the Uruguayan government. The radio
station S.O.D.R.E. broadcasts a series of his talks.
May: The touring exhibition “American Contemporary Painting” organized by the
Committee for Art among the American Republics of the Museum of Modern Art,
New York, opens in Montevideo. After seeing it, JTG gives a lecture titled “Mi
opinión de la exposición de artistas norteamericanos: Contribución al problema del
arte en América” (My Opinion about the Exhibition of American Artists: Contribution
to the problem of Art in America). The lecture is edited and published one year later
by Industria Gráfica Uruguaya in Montevideo.
October 25: Alfredo Cáceres publishes Torres-García: Estudio Psicológico y
Síntesis de Critica (Montevideo: L.I.G.V.).
Exhibitions
July–August: Solo exhibition, Comisión Municipal de Cultura, Montevideo.
Writings
“De la libertad y la disciplina en el arte.” Saber vivir, Buenos Aires), no. 6 (January).
“Documentación de una obra y una vida al servicio del arte.” El Plata, August 7.
“Sentido místico del arte.” El Plata, December 10.
La Ciudad sin nombre. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
1942
July 22: Lincon Kirstein visits JTG’s studio and purchases The Port, 1942 (1942.17) on behalf of the Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
September 22: JTG travels to Buenos Aires for the opening of his solo exhibition at Galería Müller. The following day he
gives a talk at the Buenos Aires Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores.
Works
JTG paints abstract compositions that recall stone walls and a series of
constructive harbors that include the large figure of the Universal Man and
symbols.
Exhibitions
September 23: Solo exhibition, Galería Müller, Buenos Aires
Harbor and four universal figures, 1942
Oil on board, 31½ x 39¾ in. 80 x 101 cm.
Writings
“El nuevo arte de América.” Apex, no. 1 July: 11-16.
“Exposición de pintura y arte constructivo en el Ateneo.” Federación de
Estudiantes Plásticos del Uruguay, no. 1, November
“Revalorización del concepto de pintura.” Boletín del Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores. Buenos Aires. December.
“Mi opinión de la exposición de artistas norteamericanos: Contribución al problema del arte en América” (My Opinion
about the Exhibition of American Artists: Contribution to the problem of Art in America). Montevideo: Industria Gráfica
Uruguaya.
1943
January 14: JTG rents the premises next to his home on
Calle Abayubá 2763 to accommodate the increasing
number of young artists who wish to study with him. Twelve
days later he holds the first meeting of the Taller TorresGarcía (TTG). Among the members are Julio Alpuy (19192009), Gonzalo Fonseca (1922-1997), José Gurvich (19271974), Manuel Pailós (1918-2004), Francisco Matto (19111995), Horacio (1924-1976) and Augusto Torres (19131993), Sergio de Castro (1922-2012), Elsa Andrada (19202010), Carmen Cantú, Edgardo Ribeiro (1921-2006), Alceu
Ribeiro (1919-2013), Jonio Montiel (1924-1986), Lili Salvo
(1928-2010), and Olga Piria (1927-).
America, 1943, oil on artist board, 19 x 29 in. 50,3 x 74 cm.
March: Uruguayan Madí artists Rhod Rothfuss (1920-1969) and Carmelo Arden Quin (1913-2010) visit JTG throughout
the year. Rothfuss exhibits at Galería Barreiro, Montevideo.
July 10: JTG distributes a circular to his students announcing a new direction for the Taller Torres-García. He asks them
to practice strictly planist abstract painting within the TTG.
December: The last issue of Círculo y Cuadrado, dedicated to the newly formed Taller Torres-García, is published.
Works
In one of his most prolific years, JTG paints constructive compositions in bright primary colors.
Writings
“Con respecto a una futura creación literaria.” Apex (Montevideo), no. 2 (February): 11-17.
“Algo sobre la futura ‘Academia de Bellas Artes.” Marcha, April.
“Nuestro Concepto de Realismo.” Círculo y Cuadrado, nos. 8, 9, and 10 (December).
“Pintura y arte constructivo.” Círculo y Cuadrado, nos. 8, 9, and 10 (December).
“Sentido de lo Moderno.” Círculo y Cuadrado, nos. 8, 9, and 10 (December).
“La pintura de Vieira Da Silva.” Alfar 21, no. 82.
1944
March-May: Madí artists Arden Quin, Rothfuss, Tomás Maldonado (1922-), Gyula Kosice (1924-), and Alfredo Hlito
(1923-1993) visit JTG.
May 21: Working without compensation, JTG and his students realize a series (35 in total) of Constructive Universal
murals throughout the buildings at the Hospital Saint Bois.
June: JTG takes Arden Quin, Rothfuss, and Maldonado to see the Hospital Saint Bois murals with Argentine critics Jorge
Romero Brest and Julio Payró.
August 7: The local press publishes negative criticism about the murals starting a debate that continues for months.
August 18: JTG is awarded the grand prize for painting at the VIII Salón Nacional de Bellas Artes
for Mentón, 1944 (1944.37). JTG interprets the prize to a figurative painting as a rebuff of his constructivist project.
Pax in Lucem, 1944, Mural, enamel paint on wall (transferred to canvas), 43¼ x 168⅛ in. 110 x 427 cm.
October 13: The Montevideo newspaper El País publishes “Universalismo constructivo,” the first of four articles by
Uruguayan painter José Cúneo (1887-1977) attacking JTG’s constructivism.
November 1: Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro lectures at the Ateneo. Huidobro will later write an article honoring JTG in
the newspaper, Marcha.
Works
July 21: JTG and his students finish the mural project. JTG considers mural painting the ideal complement to architecture
and the culmination of his Constructive Universal project. Beginning in 1970, seven of the murals by JTG were removed
for restoration, and in 1974 were exhibited at the Museo de Artes Visuales in Montevideo on the occasion of the one
hundredth anniversary of JTG’s birth (the other murals by his students were removed and restored in the 1990s and are
now at the Torre Antel, Montevideo.) In 1978, while on exhibit at the Museu de Arte Moderna de Rio de Janeiro, these
seven murals were destroyed in a fire, together with other paintings and wood constructions by JTG and hundreds of
works from the museum's collection.]
La decoración mural del pabellón Martirene de la Colonia Saint Bois is
published by Talleres Sur, Montevideo with contributions by JTG and
others figures from the Uruguayan art world. The texts explain how the
murals were executed and recommend that architects take mural
decoration into account when planning buildings, instead of assuming
that it can be added later.
Exhibitions
May 4: Solo exhibition, Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo.
October: Solo exhibition, Salón Caviglia, Montevideo.
November: Group exhibition, “Pintores Modernos Uruguayos,”
JTG, at far right, stands next to his painting Paisaje
de Menton (Menton landscape), 1944, which won
first prize at the VIII Salon Nacional de Bellas Artes,
1944
Galería Comte, Buenos Aires.
Writings
“En defensa de las expresiones modernas del arte.” Marcha (August 18). JTG responds to critics of the St. Bois hospital
murals.
“Significado del Monumento Cósmico del parque Rodó y de los murales de la Colonia Saint Bois.” Marcha. September
15.
“El problema de la decoración mural. Contestando al Arquitecto Señor Herrera Mac Lean.” Marcha, no. 256 (October 27).
“La decoración mural del Pabellón Martirené de la Colonia Saint Bois.” Booklet with texts by JTG, Ramón Menchaca,
Guido Castillo, Alfredo Cáceres, Pablo Purriel, Carmelo de de Arzadun.
“Con respecto a una futura creación literaria.” Arturo (Buenos Aires), no. 1
“Divertimento 1.” Arturo, no. 1.
“Divertimento 2.” Arturo, no. 1.
Universalismo Constructivo. Buenos Aires: Poseidón, 1944. An anthology of one hundred and fifty lectures delivered
between 1934 and 1943, illustrated with more than two hundred drawings.
1945
February 1: The Taller Torres-García issues the first issue of Removedor (Paint Remover), a combative publication
edited by Guido Castillo.
February 5: René d’Harnoncourt, curator for the Museum of Modern Art, New York, visits JTG’s studio while on tour in
South America.
April: The Buenos Aires magazine Contrapunto (vol. 1, no. 3) publishes “Hacia dónde se dirige la pintura?” (Where is
painting headed?), an interview with the Madí artist Tomás Maldonado. JTG replies to the question in Contrapunto no. 6
(also published inRemovedor, no. 10).
Works
August: JTG paints Constructivo en cinco tonos, 1945 (1945.02) a composition protesting the bombing of Hiroshima and
Negasaki.
Exhibitions
June–July: Solo exhibition at the Salamanca bookstore, Montevideo, which was inaugurated as a permanent exhibition
space for El Taller Torres-García.
Solo exhibition of portraits, “Héroes, Hombres y Monstruos” (Heroes,
Men & Monsters), Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo.
Writings
“Reflexiones sobre el arte y el artista.” Removedor, no. 6 (July-August).
“Interpretación literaria de la pintura.” Removedor, no. 6 (July-August).
“Cada uno en su ley.” Removedor, no. 7 (September).
“Nuestra lucha por la pintura.” Removedor, no. 8 (October-November).
“Razón de ser del arte constructivo.” Removedor, no. 9 (December).
“JTG replies to the question ¿A dónde va la pintura?” Contrapunto no. 6
(also published in Removedor, no. 10)
Constructivo a cinco tonos, Homo Sapiens
(Constructive painting in five tones, Homo
Sapiens), 1945, oil on board, 21¼ x 33½ in. 54 x
85,1 cm.
1946
May 19: Argentine artist Gyula Kosice visits JTG.
José María Podestá publishes J. Torres-García (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada).
December: First International Exhibition of the Madí Group in Montevideo, at the Agrupación de Intelectuales Artistas
Periodistas y Escritores.
Maldonado responds to JTG’s article in Contrapunto (1945, no. 6) by publishing “Torres-García en contra del arte
moderno” (Torres-García against modern art) in Boletín de la Asociación Arte Concreto-Invención, Buenos Aires.
Works
JTG paints Mural de la Maternidad, 1944 (1944.39), a fresco for the Rodríguez López Maternity Hospital, Montevideo,
based on a detail of La Edad de Oro de la Humanidad,1915 (1915.01), one of the Saló Sant Jordi murals in Barcelona
that was covered over in 1927.
Exhibitions
October: Group exhibition, “Ars Americana, Argentine, Chili, Uruguay,” Maison de
l’Amérique Latine, Paris.
Writings
“El pueblo ya tiene el arte que desea.” Removedor, no. 10 (January-February).
“Valores constantes en el arte.” Cuadernos Americanos, Mexico. March-April.
Nueva Escuela del Arte del Uruguay. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo.
Published June 15, the book is illustrated with examples of constructivist art, applied art,
and figurative painting by JTG and his students, according to the classification made by JTG.
JTG’s hand-lettered essay “La regla abstracta” is translated in English and French.
Cover of Nueva Escuela
de Arte del Uruguay, 1946
“Del desconocimiento actual del arte.” Removedor, no. 13 (June-July).
“Manifiesto 5 ‘Porqué no son artistas.’ ” Removedor, no. 13 (June-July).
“Nuestro problema del arte en América.” Removedor, no. 14 (August-October).
“De los murales norteamericanos.” Removedor, no. 14 (August-October).
1947
April-September: JTG gives a series of talks at the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias, Montevideo.
JTG, far left, with students at Taller Torres-García in the Ateneo, including Manuel Pailós, Guido
Castillo, Horacio Torres, Julio Alpuy, Jonio Montiel, José Gurvich, and Francisco Matto
Exhibitions
April 30: Solo exhibition, Salón del Ateneo, Montevideo.
Writings
“Una nueva decoración mural.” Removedor, no. 16 (January-February).
Mística de la pintura. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte Constructivo/Taller Torres-García.
“No sean majaderos.” Removedor, no. 18 (July-August).
“De la pintura y el pintor.” Clinamen, no.1, no. 2 (July-August): 3.
“No hubo remedio....” Removedor, no. 19 (September).
“León Felipe el poeta.” Removedor, no. 20 (October-November).
1948
Construction begins on JTG’s house at Calle Caramurú 5612, designed by
architects Ramón Menchaca and Ernesto Leborgne as an example of
Constructivism applied to architecture. JTG designs three stained-glass
windows, two iron window gates, and the hall floor, in constructivist style. His
students also contribute art works, such as a fish carved in stone for the façade
Perspectiva con barco negro
(Perspective with black ship), 1947, oil on
cardboard, 16⅛ x 19⅛ in. 41 x 48,6 cm
by Gonzalo Fonseca, and a mosaic by Julio Alpuy for the entrance hall.
April-November: JTG gives a series of talks, “La Recuperación del Objeto” (The Recovery of the Object) at the Facultad
de Humanidades y Ciencias. The focus of the lectures is how to renew figuration in painting and how to represent the idea
of things as they are registered in our memory rather than as they are visualized. JTG suggests that color is determined in
relation to the other tones in the picture and thus created by the artist, not copied from reality. The lectures are published
by the University in July 1952.
Exhibitions
May: Solo exhibition, Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo
Writings
“El hombre, el año, y la eternidad.” Removedor, no. 21 (January-February).
Lo aparente y lo concreto en el arte. Montevideo: Asociación de Arte
Constructivo/Taller Torres-García.
1949
January: JTG moves into his new house on Calle Caramarú in Punta Gorda on the
outskirts of Montevideo near the beach.
JTG prepares for two exhibitions in the United States: a group show with his
students to be held at the Pan-American Union in Washington, D.C., and a solo
show at the Sidney Janis Gallery, New York.
August 8: JTG dies in Montevideo at the age of 75. His body is brought to the
Ateneo to lie in state under one of his Constructive Universal paintings, Grafisme
Consturctif, 1931. Among those who speak are the Argentinean art critic Julio Payró
(1899-1971), the architect Ramón Menchaca, the poet Emilio Oribe (1893-1975),
Julio J. Casal (1889-1954), editor of the magazine Alfar, and Guido Castillo (19222001).
JTG in front of his new house, Calle
Caramú 5612, Montevideo, 1949
Exhibitions
July 28: Retrospective exhibition at Sociedad Amigos del Arte, Montevideo; despite being gravely ill JTG attends the
opening. The poet Susana Soca (1906-1959), Julio Payró, professor of art history at the University of Buenos Aires, and
Spanish writer José Bergamín lecture on his work. Catalogue includes foreword by artist Amalia Nieto.
December 24, 1949-January 6, 1950: Solo exhibition, “Homenaje a Joaquín Torres-García,” Galerias Layetanas,
Barcelona.
Writings
“Lección primera del Taller Torres-García.” Removedor, no. 23 (April).
“Piedra miliaria” (Milestone). Removedor, no. 24 (May).
1950
Posthumous Exhibitions (Organized by JTG):
February 2–March 13, 1950: Group exhibition, “Torres-García and His Workshop,” Pan-American Union, Washington,
D.C.
April 1950: Solo exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. According to Janis, Barnett Newman visited the show and
enthusiastically explained the paintings to fellow artists.
JTG´s tomb, Cementerio del Norte, Montevideo